By Luca Nobleman

“Save the world… again?” Miriel stroked the white hair between her faithful St. Bernard’s ears. The hulking brute glanced up at her, rolling his eyes, mouth agape.

Oh, you think you’re too old for this, do you, Matteo? she mindspoke to him.

The cantankerous canine nodded his agreement and laid his chin over his paws again. Matteo usually stood taller around strangers—protective of his aging owner. Now, he sat idle, no worry in the world.

The masked woman sitting across from Miriel tapped her fingers on her giant staff. “Another world, Miriel. You already saved Severent. This one is called Plathia.” The Codifier, as she called herself, hid her identity behind a mask-augmented voice. The woman directed the Timekeepers, so Miriel respected her eerie anonymity.

“Don’t you have someone with a growling stomach instead? Someone who just needs a good batch of homemade sugar cookies?” Miriel gazed out the window—twin suns set on the horizon, casting an ethereal orange glow across her barren home world.

“Don’t tell me you have taken up baking over slaying world-ending titans, Miriel?”

“Well, when you put it that way.” She eyed the Codifier’s bare hand. A deep scar etched across each tapping finger. So familiar… who is she?

“Listen, Miriel, the last planet overtaken by these titans, Xintixa, even had a core defense weapon. But no forged weapon can stop them—it requires special attention.” The Codifier’s digitally embellished voice crackled. “We need you. A crime family from Earth stole an aeon stone and accidentally woke one of the sleeping giants on Plathia, and now the planet is in danger.”

“How can the fate of an entire planet rest on the shoulders of one woman?” Miriel idly plucked a bur from Matteo’s knit sweater and sighed. She could never deny someone who asked for help.

Though covered by the mechanical mask, the Codifier seemed to peer intently at Miriel. The dignitary leaned forward, whispering, “Miriel Takkenridge, you know why.” Then, gripping Miriel’s hand, she added comfortingly, “And you won’t be alone.”

***

“Phezznibbet? That’s a wonderful name.” Miriel slipped a muffin from her pocket and offered it to the two-foot-tall squirrel, a Xintixa, standing beside her.

The creature gladly partook and spoke between mouthfuls of the baked goodie. “It was my grandfather’s name.”

Miriel nodded and peered out over the vast valley before them. Massive ravines dotted the scenery—footprints created by the titan who haunted this land. “So, these titans invaded your world?” Miriel squinted, making out the image of a dancing ballerina in one of the rock formations. Her pareidolia always kicked in when she was on the job.

“Invaded? No. They just grew from the land. Nothing could stop them.” Phezz chewed. “My brother attempted to destroy them using our planet’s core magma extractor.”

“Did he succeed?” Miriel prodded.

“Yeah… he annihilated them all right… but also our entire planet. They floated away into the void… with everyone else.” The furry Xintixa looked away, appearing lost in memory.

Then, breaking from his reverie, he glanced up. “So, you’ve defeated these colossi before?”

“In a way.” Miriel kneeled, resting her palm on the rocky ground.

“What are you doing?” Phezznibbet sniffed.

“Listening,” she whispered. Miriel mindspoke to the planet, reciting the incantations the elders had taught her long ago. Memories of a world torn apart by war raged through her psyche—not her memories, but those of Plathia. Its soul stormed.

“When the titans appeared on Xintixa”—she turned to Phezz—“was it soon after deep drilling and discovering a glowing blue ore?”

Surprise crossed the squirrel’s furry face. “How’d you know that?”

“And when you recently interacted with this crime family, they stole a similar blue crystal?”

“Yeah… Are you saying this is connected somehow?”

“Not just somehow, but critically.” She rose. “This crime family of yours—”

“The Grieves,” Phezznibbet growled. A hint of resentment clung to each emphasized consonant.

“Right. The Grieves… Do you think you could get that crystal from them?”

The Xintixa’s eyes twinkled with delight. “Surely.”

***

The Xintixa was swift. Miriel had imagined days’ worth of effort on his part. Phezznibbet retrieved it within hours.

“That was quick.” She eyed the crystal the large squirrel wielded.

“Well, you’d think they’d have more than an army of thugs, dogs, security cameras, laser traps, and poison gas protecting their warehouse.” Phezz scratched his ear.

“Oh, that’s all?” Miriel chuckled.

He shrugged and handed her the glowing blue crystal. “So, what now?”

Just as the words escaped his lips, the world rumbled around them. While Miriel and Phezz steadied their feet, a towering stone titan rose from the earth a hundred yards away.

“Oh no! Not again!” Phezznibbet called out. “What do we do?”

Miriel gripped the crystal with two hands and recited another spell.

The blue energy faded from the crystal, streaming into her eyes. Out of sheer instinct, born from experience, she dropped to her knees, pressing her palms to the ground. Her hands seared with pain as she forced the blue energy into the earth below.

Phezznibbet stumbled backward as the jolt of energy shook the landscape and struck the titan, crumbling it into a thousand boulders.

“What was that you just did?”

Miriel gasped. “Gave the planet her breath back.” Standing weakly, she winced. “The people here extracted her life force. I returned it.”

“How?” Phezz asked.

“An old Fae incantation.” She shook her hands. They burned from the conjuring.

“Fae? You’re a—”

“Half Nymph, half Elf.”

***

The Codifier clapped as Miriel stepped into the room.

“How’d you know I could do it?”

“Because I did it.” The Codifier finally lifted her mask.

Miriel stared at a mirror image of herself, albeit much more aged and wrinkled—the hair whiter, eyes still dappled gray. Miriel lifted her injured hand. It was an exact match to the scar along the Codifier’s fingers.

“Hmm, I’m pretty clever.” Miriel congratulated her future self.

“Want one?” The Codifier presented a perfectly frosted cookie.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Luca Nobleman is an author, surgeon, and nerd. To what nerdiness level? Pikachu? He crocheted his own once. Magic the Gathering? His wife rents a storage unit for all his cards. Star Wars action figures? His desk could maybe fit one more K2SO. But it’s okay, because his four children sure like having an extra grown kid in the house. Luca is the author and audiobook/podcast voice for the Dreaming Machines novel series.

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